


Predicament

by nhasablog



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Tickling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 09:08:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15860592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nhasablog/pseuds/nhasablog
Summary: “You ticklish or something?” he asked at the end of the day, prodding at Peter’s lower back in such an unbearable way in order to get him to walk faster through the crowd.“What? Me? Of course not.”Apparently denial was seen as the biggest challenge of them all.(Or, Ned sees it as a challenge to tickle Peter as often as he can.)





	Predicament

Ned had known about this for years, so why he’d suddenly decided to take advantage of it for the entirety of that week was beyond Peter. The worst part was that he couldn’t ask lest he wanted to confess to something he continuously claimed wasn’t true, even though the evidence was staring them right in the eyes.

A predicament was what he was in.

It had started innocently enough. A nudge to the ribs to get Peter to hurry up and get his books from his locker, which had resulted in Peter recoiling hard enough for it to be visible. It was probably his own fault that Ned took it as a challenge.

What followed was a whole day filled with subtle pokes to his ribs and sides, squeezes to his thigh, fingers even spidering over his kneecaps whenever a table shielded their lower halves from the world, which happened in almost every single class. Peter, even though he knew it was probably coming at this point, reacted each time, which was most likely throwing fuel in the fire that was Ned’s amusement.

“You ticklish or something?” he asked at the end of the day, prodding at Peter’s lower back in such an unbearable way in order to get him to walk faster through the crowd.

“What? Me? Of course not.”

Apparently denial was seen as the biggest challenge of them all.

The rest of that week left Peter a jumpy mess, his hands rising and an involuntary smile tugging at his lips as soon as Ned came close to him. It would’ve been funny had the spidey senses not made him even more sensitive than he’d been before. Back then he might’ve been able to handle it. Now, not so much.

“I’m barely touching you,” Ned said, unable to contain his laughter as Peter all but slammed into the wall when Ned’s hand had come slightly too close to his neck. “Seriously, how are you supposed to fight bad guys if you can’t even handle  _me_?”

“They don’t try to tickle me,” he shot back, grateful that Aunt May wasn’t home to witness this.

“So you admit that you  _are_ ticklish?”

“I never said that.”

“Oh, because being scared of wiggling fingers is normal when you’re not ticklish.”

“Hey, it’s the spidey thing. It makes me see even the smallest of threats.”

Ned  _did_ manage to flutter his fingers over Peter’s neck then, making him all but collapse onto the couch in his attempt to get away. “I believe you. Now come on. Let me kick your ass at this game.”

In retrospect, agreeing to play a video game with Ned where both his hands would be occupied at the end of this particular week had probably been a bad idea. But Peter had promised Mr Stark to still keep parts of his life normal, and this was a normal Friday night for them, especially when Aunt May was working late.

The first poke came when Ned started losing, and Peter prided himself in jerking away without losing focus on the game. He wasn’t about to let Ned cheat his way to the victory. He was determined. He was ready. He- oh, now he was on the floor.

“Stop cheating,” he whined, glaring up at Ned who was snickering so smugly Peter almost felt annoyed.

“You just flew down,” he said. “It was so funny.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Peter said as he heaved himself up. “You can’t win so you have to cheat. I see you.”

Had he really expected Ned to do anything but attack his neck for that comment? If he had he was a dumbass.

“You could stop me so easily, you know,” Ned was saying, having finally had enough of the brief torture and decided to trap Peter between his body and wall and go to town. “But you don’t. I find that interesting.”

How do you tell your best friend that you lose control of your body while tickled without having them tease you to death?

You don’t.

So Peter didn’t.

In his flailing panic he did manage to grab onto Ned’s wrists though, only he merely held on, giggling like a maniac as Ned’s fingers danced over his belly. Until they came slightly too close to a sweet spot, that is. Peter might not have done it on purpose, but his hands shot out, removing Ned’s from his torso, and stopped the unbearable sensation immediately.

“See? You can fight back!” Ned pointed at him as best as he could with Peter still holding his wrists. “And I finally got you to laugh. So far you’ve just done this weird shriek thing. I had to make sure you knew  _how_ to laugh.”

“You idiot,” Peter said, slightly out of breath, which quite frankly was embarrassing since he hadn’t been laughing for that long. “If you wanted me to laugh you could’ve just told a joke.”

“This was way more fun.”

Peter didn’t say so aloud, but he agreed.

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my [tumblr](http://nhasablog.tumblr.com)


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